Anatomy & Physiology

You should consider these four factors when deciding whether to use information from health & medical websites as part of the care of your patients:

• Intended Audience: consider the three "P"s
  1. Professional: Health Care Practitioner
  2. Patient* - Person diagnosed with X, includes patient education materials
  3. Public* - includes statistical information like prevalence or incidence rates, e.g. the CDC
  4. Public & Patience information falls into a category known as 'Consumer Health" information

Many health & medical websites serve both consumers and professionals -- which content on the website is appropriate for your informational need? 

• Currency: when was the information created?
  1. Why should we consider currency? 
  2. How should we measure currency? And are there exceptions? 
     1. General benchmark is information published in the last 5 years -- although there are many variables.  Exceptions include seminal works, ability to trace professional discourse and thought process over time.

• Context: what is the context in which the information was produced? Why was it produced? What might the impact be when we are interpreting and using this information?
  1. Who are the major producers of information in this field? Whose point over view is being represented, and is there a potential for bias?
     1. Scholars/academia
     2. Clinicians/healthcare professionals
     3. Government organizations and agencies
     4. Scientific and research societies
  2. Common practice: when providing health information 'funding disclosures' and 'conflict of interest statements' should be explicit
     1. Website: Is site sponsorship disclosed? Are there commercial organizations that have contributed funding, services, or materials to the website?
     2. If a website is linking to or referencing research articles/studies, who is funding the research? Is there anything not being reported?

• Evidence Based Documentation Provided: Are references or source documentation included?
  1. Content should be supported by strong empirical evidence. Empirical evidence is evidence that has been systematically and scientifically tested through observation and experimentation (well-designed research studies, patient care data, includes primary & some secondary sources in health science literature)
  2. Expert opinion is not scientifically tested and is therefore considered weak evidence.  De-emphasis on authority in health science research.
     1. Evidence based practice emphasizes the degree to which a study is free from potential bias and error.

See Content Evaluation Guidelines for a full listing and explanation of the criteria

In some instances, health and medical websites may be a reasonable resource for general medical background knowledge of a disease.

Sections of a site may provide:

• etiology, incidence rates, pathology, signs/symptoms, prognosis, course of the disease, medical treatments, and precautions